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Study of Edge Effect to Stop Liquid Spillage for Microgravity Application

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Abstract

The ability of a micro-groove to prevent the spreading of HFE-7100 fluid (C4F9OCH3) having low surface tension (γ = 13.6 mN/m) on a surface is studied. In this study, micro-grooves were made around square openings of a plate made of either polycarbonate or 316 stainless steel. To verify effectiveness of micro-grooves to stop the spread of HFE-7100, experiments were done under non-saturated and saturated conditions. Under non-saturated conditions the micro-grooves on both materials confined the liquid up to apparent angle of 55 ± 5° due to the edge effect. Saturated gas-vapor mixture with vapor mass fraction of w v = 88% and w v = 97% did not significantly influence the confinement of the liquid by the micro-groove. This result is promising for application of micro-grooved plates in CIMEX experiment planned for ISS.

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Correspondence to Viktor Grishaev.

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Grishaev, V., Amirfazli, A., Chikov, S. et al. Study of Edge Effect to Stop Liquid Spillage for Microgravity Application. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 25, 27–33 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-012-9325-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-012-9325-6

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